Map data based on J.-P. Boudot & V. J. Kalkman (eds.),Atlas of the European Dragonflies and Damselflies

General

• a large, western-Mediterranean species which occurs in Italy, the south of France, Iberia and on most western-Mediterranean islands

Classification

• suborder: Zygoptera (damselflies); family: Calopterygidae

Conservation status

• IUCN Red List Europe: Least Concern

Scientific name

• Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis (Vander Linden, 1825)

Distribution

• click or tap the Map button above

Notes

• its flight is fluttery and butterfly-like

• males engage in a dazzling display flight to attract females into their territories

• to demonstrate the suitability of an ovipositing site males sit down on the water and allow the current to carry them by that site while 'flashing' the coloured underside of their abdomen tips at the females

• both males and females hold territories at the water

Habitat

• fairly wide, slow-flowing and sunny streams and rivers

Dimensions

• typical body length: 45-48 mm; hindwing: 23-37 mm

Both sexes

Abdomen

➤ the abdomen is coppery brown or dark green

Wings

• the wings are fairly pointed and narrow

Male

Thorax

• the thorax is coppery brown or dark green

Abdomen

• the abdomen is coppery brown or dark green

➤ in mature males the underside of the last three abdominal segments is rosy-red; in immature males it is white

Wings

• the wings lack a (pseudo-)pterostigma

• the wings are clear at the base but from well before the node they're completely dark all the way through to the tip

Female

Thorax

• the thorax is coppery brown-green and has thin antehumeral stripes

Abdomen

• the top of the abdomen is coppery brown-green

Wings

➤ the wings are translucent brown, but in mature females a dark band runs through the hindwing tips

• the wings bear a white pseudopterostigma

Photographs

• nearly all of our photos below were made in Tuscany and the south of Italy